The following biographical information will be of very little interest to very
few people, but as my high school classmates and I are approaching our
50th reunion, we are starting to reconnect and be interested in what each
other has been doing all these years. Also, my grandaughter has been
needing family information for her various school projects, and this may
help her.
Born in Pierre, South Dakota, 2/21/35- (Corinne Jean Stafford)
Although Mother was a Watertown girl, she had followed her crippled
sister Fern (polio epidemic victim) to the capitol, hoping Fern could get
her work at the State House too, but there was a rule that only one
member of a family could work there, so Mother became a waitress. The
story I was told was that when Daddy saw Mother walking down the
street for the first time, he told a friend "I'm going to marry that girl in the
blue hat." (Waldon Warren Stafford married Corinne Gertrude
Heathcote in Huron, South Dakota in December of 1933)
Moved back to Watertown when I was about a year old-
Learning to walk, I walked over to the stove and pulled a pan of hot
bacon grease down on me, just missing my face and eyes- I was wearing
a crocheted dress, and the doctor had to go into the blisters and cut
away each string. I had my hands tied so I couldn't scratch at the burns,
so I learned to feed myself my bottle with my feet, but the nurse got so
mad because everytime I finished a bottle, I threw it over the side of the
crib. All baby bottles were glass in those days. Mother got mad because
she had to re-potty-train me when I finally came home from the hospital.
Daddy died in '41 before his reserve unit was called up for WWII- He
went into the hospital for a liver ailment, and the day he was supposed to
be discharged, he contracted spinal meningitis and died 3 days later. A
hospital is no place for a sick person. (Mother was told later that almost
all those boys in his cavalry unit died in the war.)
Grandpa Heathcote had lost his farm in the depression, and Grandpa,
Grandma and Uncle Bugs (also a polio victim, but the damage was to his
heart) lived in town in a little house with no indoor plumbing- As I
compare my life to theirs, I know I am so lucky. Out of 5 children, they
had 2 children damaged terribly by polio, another son who contracted
TB in the army when he was stationed in China and died in their living
room begging them to hit him over the head with a hammer and end all
the pain, and they lost all material possessions in the depression. The
daughter with polio died one month after her brother from an infected
tooth and was shipped home with her unborn baby at her feet in the
coffin. One of the grandchildren died from measles. Grandpa and Uncle
Bugs died 3 days apart.
Because Mother had to work full-time to support us, I was a "latch key"
kid before anyone had to lock doors. As I was a sickly kid, Mother was
advised to find some way to be home with me more. She had a boy
cousin who had custody of his four kids (Loretta age 10, Marian 9,
George 5, and Eddie 4) and owned a 2-story house. I was age 7 and
smack dab in the middle. Mother and Uncle Hepsy agreed to try to raise
these rapscallions together. Mother and I moved into 2 rooms upstairs.
Boy, do we have some good stories about those years before Uncle
Hepsy decided to farm. (These were also the years of World War II. As
we were too poor to afford a car, we didn't miss buying gas; too poor to
afford meat so food stamps were no big problem. Mother did object to
having to paint her "silk" stockings on with body paint, and I hated having
to squeeze the new margarine packets so that the yellow pellet would
turn the white, lard-colored margarine to a butter yellow.) I never again
ate margarine after I had a choice. My kids loved to give me the
margarine test and I never failed one. I can tell real butter at 20 paces.
Moved to Fullerton, Calif when Mother remarried (summer before I
started 6th grade 1946?)-
Started working for my room and board in my junior year of high school
with a wonderful family who became my second family- Mr. Prey, a
teacher at the high school, lived next door to the Busters, and when
Mother told him I needed a home, he asked his neighbor if they could
take me in. When I first went there, there were 4 children, the youngest
still in diapers. Several years later when this youngest boy was listening to
his mother tell someone about her children, he said "You forgot Connie."
He was astounded to learn I wasn't really a sister. No one had ever
thought to explain to him what the deal was. I lived with them for five
years, moving with them to Chicago.
Graduated from Fullerton Union High School, Fullerton, Calif 1953-
Graduated from Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Ill. BA in English
2/1957- Member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority- Did my practice teaching
with accelerated juniors and seniors in English at Lake Forest High
School-
Taught 7th grade English and Social Studies at Orange Jr. High and
Yorba Jr. High (the first year it was opened), Orange, Calif- The first day
I taught, I was the third teacher the "C and Under" class had had, and the
pencil erasers were whizzing past my head. I went home and said I'd
never go back. They told me I had to as I had signed a contract. That
summer, I had nightmares that I entered my new class and had the same
darn students. (The principal gave me one "C and Above" class to help
bring me out of shock.)
Taught 7th grade English at Wilshire Jr. High where I had graduated,
(Fullerton, Calif) with my own jr. high teachers and Miss Sterns, my Ford
Elem 6th grade teacher, as my master teacher-
Taught 7th grade English at Ladera Vista Jr. High, Fullerton, Calif the 1st
year it was opened-
Taught 12th grade English at Bolsa Grande High School, Garden Grove,
Calif-
During my husband's Air Force active duty, lived in San Antonio, Tx,
Gulfport, Miss, Ft. Worth, Tx, and Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico.
Son #1 (Peter Stafford Van Horn) born at Keesler AFB, Miss 5/22/64-
Natives said it was the worst winter in 25 years (about 6 inches snow on
the gulf coast).
Son #2 (Christopher William Van Horn) born at Carswell AFB, Tx
8/10/65-
(Got no Puerto Ricans, but my friend had 2 babies there, so it evened
out.) The first year we were there, it was the worst drought in 25 years.
The second year we were there, it was the most rain in 25 years. When
we were due to return to Calif, it was the month Calif was supposed to
fall into the ocean- we didn't dare tell any of our friends we were due
back as they wouldn't have let us deplane.
Whenever the boys would act awful, my husband would say "What can
you expect for 6 bucks?" (In the AF then, maternity expenses were only
for the dependent's food eaten while in the hospital when the baby was
born.)
Lived in Pedley, Calif, near Riverside while my husband worked for the
telephone co in San Bernadino- The boys were ready for kindergarten
and nursury school. We were asking Peter questions he might be asked
at school. "What's your name?" He answered "Peter Van Horn." "What's
your father's name?" He answered "Bill Van Horn." "What's your
mother's name?" He answered "Connie Faiola." "What! Don't tell the
teachers that! Where'd you get that idea?" It turned out he thought the
boys were named Van Horn, but that the girls (my friend in Puerto Rico
and I) were named by her last name. (Kind of like when I was little and
thought all cats were girls and all dogs were boys.)
Moved to Encanto (San Diego suburb) for 1 wonderful year- I loved it
there even though Chris got knocked into the turtle pond at Sea World
before we even got in the door one time. We had memberships to both
the San Diego Zoo and to Sea World. We would go to Sea World just
to eat dinner. (Fish, of course. We weren't even aware of the irony. Of
course, years later, I went to see "Babe" at the movies and then ate bbq
pork. Thank goodness my grandaughter was too young to know what
we were eating.)
Moved to Huntington Beach, Calif- The boys went to 1st and 2nd
through 4th and 5th grades there.
Moved to Santa Ana, Calif (really the county- Santa Ana address, Tustin
schools)- Chris started 5th grade and Peter started 6th grade and they
stayed through high school graduation.
I was one of the fortunate mothers who got to be home with her children
while they were growing up, and I will always be grateful for that. It was
fun.
Started learning about computers so I could understand my husband's
work- I entered Saddleback College when Peter started Foothill High
School. I was really impressed that the young college students thought
nothing of the age difference and made us older students feel just as
welcome and as part of the school as they were. I made friends of all
ages- many of whom I work with today.
I liked applications programming better than system programming so I
still don't know what my husband's doing.
Taught COBOL part-time at Saddleback College, Begin and Adv
COBOL, Basic, and Intro to Computers at Cal State Univ, Fullerton,
and Intro at Santa Ana and Orange Park Acres Colleges and now work
part-time in the Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College computer
labs helping students with their homework, one on one- We figure I
earned about 25 cents an hour by the time I planned the lectures, gave
the lectures and graded the print charts, record layouts, flowcharts, and
read every line of code. (Hopefully, I helped avert the Y2K potential
disaster. I get really upset when I hear people scoff at the Y2K "hype". It
may seem like it was "hype" because few of the potential problems
occurred, but that was because a lot of people worked very hard to
solve those problems.)
Peter graduated from UCLA as an elec engineer, went into the Navy
flight program, but backed out when they wanted to make him a
helicopter pilot. He said those things would kill ya. He went to Carnegie
Mellon Univ in Pittsburg and got 2 master's degrees and is now at home
writing some financial program and mooching off his folks.
Christopher went to Cal State Univ, Fullerton, but quit his senior year- (I
used to tell the boys how my students would tell me how they had really
messed up by quitting college when their parents were paying for it, and
how now they were working full-time, and were parents and were having
to pay for everything themselves. It made no difference. Chris didn't
listen. Now he's doing all those things, trying to get his degree.) He lived
in New York for a few years and loved it, but lives in Scottsdale, AZ,
now to be closer to his daughter and is doing something in telemarketing
(quality assurance or something- traveling a lot to offices all over the
states). His little girl lives in Pasadena, Calif and they get to see each
other often.
People ask me when I'm going to retire. I tell them most people retire
and then find a part-time job. I'm just doing it backwards. My health will
probably dictate the date- or if I get too cantankerous, they might just fire
me. I refuse to travel as I hate it. I won't go anywhere that I can't get
back home by midnight so I can feed my animals. I just like being home
with my pets and my books and my big yard, so I might as well keep
working while I can. (And we need every penny we can get to pay pet
food and vet bills.)
